goatee

time keeps on slipping

°2003.06.29.su | Luna Caffe

A new cafe and Indian restaurant have opened at the old Mama Gaia location. Last night Nora and I enjoyed our handsome drinks while watching the corner of Mass and Main from our seats at the open window.

°2003.06.29.su | Sweet Young Blood

"Hungry, sick, begging for a break? Sweet, fresh, would you do anything? We suck young blood; we want sweet meats, we want young blood." ...

Welcome to the Hail of the Thief Customer Hot-line.
If you are calling from a rotary phone, press 1 now.
Are you begging for a break, press 2 now.
To worry less about life, press 3 now.
For technical support, press 4 now.
We're sorry, 5 is not a number recognized on our system, please add 2 and 2 again, now.
To hear Hail to the Thiefin its its mastered entirety, press 6 now.
To hear a voice from not so distant future, press 7 now.
Don't press 8.
To hear these menu options again and again, press 9 now.
Press the * button to speak to a customer care representative at any time

Clever, but sadly I didn't think that much of the album.

[Update 030630: I noted a photo on halftone has graffiti about Radiohead; another part of a guerrilla/street ad campaign?]

°2003.06.27.fr | A Theory of Governance

"Our opinions applying the doctrine known as 'substantive due process' hold that the Due Process Clause prohibits States from infringing fundamental liberty interests, unless the infringement is narrowly tailored to serve a compelling state interest... All other liberty interests may be abridged or abrogated pursuant to a validly enacted state law if that law is rationally related to a legitimate state interest."- Justice Scalia, dissenting.

"This case raises a different issue than Bowers: whether, under the Equal Protection Clause, moral disapproval is a legitimate state interest to justify by itself a statute that bans homosexual sodomy, but not heterosexual sodomy. It is not. Moral disapproval of this group, like a bare desire to harm the group, is an interest that is insufficient to satisfy rational basis review under the Equal Protection Clause." -Justice O'Connor, concurring in judgment

The recent decision of Lawrence v. Texas is much discussed, which leaves my pleasure in the decision a bit agitated. First, much of the news is ignorant of the legal issues before the court. But this is to be expected. Second, folks seem awfully muddled even on the issues of principle. As I'm not a lawyer, I'm not competent to speak of the implications of this ruling to future cases, but it is still my privilege to speak of how things ought to be.

What interests does a government have with respect to legislating morality? A government's purview is that of (1) conflicts between private interests and (2) public matters where individuals' rights are not infringed and public interests are served. This concept is not that different from the legal concepts above but they are different. First, my scope of liberty is rather large; my scope of legitimate government interests is rather narrow. Furthermore, when those concepts are in conflict the government should favor promotion of the good, over prohibition of the bad. For example, I do not believe the vain and misogynistic expressions of the dominant hip-hop culture should be censored by the government, but itcould promote positive alternatives (e.g., public broadcasting!), and as individuals we should still employ our sense of moral censure. Let me explain these distinctions with three examples related to Lawrence v. Texas.

Is abortion (i.e., Roe v. Wade) a private act, or a "fundamental liberty interest"? Hopefully it involves the assistance of medical personnel and subsequently should be regulated within the scope of medical practice. Otherwise, if the fetus has a right to life, then this is not merely a private act and would be subject to government action. It is our collective inability to address the ethical status of a fetus, new-born, and vegetative person that leads to the incoherence of our statutory and case law. The unfortunate results are legal arguments based on "penumbras" and casting abortion as a fundamental liberty.

What of consensual sex, gay, or otherwise? For most all purposes, it is a private act and outside the purview of the government. (This sentiment seems extremely conservative to me, and is what led me to think of myself as a conservative when I was younger before I realized how dramatically the Christian theocrats were reshaping the Republican Party from the ashes of Nixon's corruption, already tainted with the influx of Dixie Democrats.)

And gay marriage? Marriage is an institution of public privilege and responsibility; it's within the purview of government. On this, I am in agreement with those opposed to gay marriage. What we disagree about is if there is any rational basis for discrimination against homosexuals. I simply don't consider ignorance nor Biblical interpretation to be a rational basis.

°2003.06.23.mo | To Be The "Open Emperor", Wear No Clothes

Lawrence Lessig is basing an argument on the efficacy of free/open source on the resolution and progress of issues involving a well known blogger. He claims that progress will prove the following skeptic wrong:

“What you don’t understand, Lessig, is that your bullshit ‘open’ or ‘free’ types will never — NEVER — be able to compete with corporate organization. Squabbles-about-egos-pretending-to-be-about-the-merits can never be quashed. There is no one to say ‘enough, let’s move on.’ So every great idea that your type creates, we’ll just wait, watch, and then take. Always.”

Please don't hitch our success to that train, Larry.

First, and most importantly, that class of issues has nothing to do with free/open source software. In particular, RSS is rooted in techno-philosophical differences, obscured by misunderstanding, and buried in a long history of personal conflict of someone that isn't even an open/free source advocate! Perhaps the issue does relate to "open formats" but not in any coherent sense that I can understand: the objects of debate are "informal" formats with no process for building a community, no leadership (as of yet), and plenty of personal grudges.

Second, ego's are problematic. But if Larry's skeptic doesn't think egos run rampant in the proprietary space, then he's not paying attention. The difference is that unchecked egos in the public tend inflame lots of drama and their owners tend to be amazingly poor leaders in that context, evidence shows that they don't get very far — or at least not nearly as far as they could have. In a company, mum is the word. Furthermore, if I'm the ego-maniac paying your proprietary salary, it can be my way or the highway. That doesn't work out in the open world of volunteers, nor in a forum of competitors — as Charlie Nesson so elegantly put it, "you can't moderate your own debate."

As folks know, I'm a fan of meritocracies, but for a meritocracy to work there must be someone of genuine merit, as supported by the consensus of the larger community, and they need a light hand: the authority and consequent success of an "open" leader is inversely proportional to their autocratic tendencies. Or as I like to say, if you want to be the Emperor giving speeches before the multitude, it's best if you can imagine yourself nude and willing to laugh at yourself.

I've watched the careers of four leaders of open communities for many years: Linus Torvalds (inventor and shepherd of Linux), Tim Berners-Lee (inventor and shepherd of the Web), Guido van Rossum (developer and shepherd of Python), and Richard Stallman (author of Emacs and founder of the Free Software Movement). I have a great deal of respect for each one of these people, but not necessarily for the same reasons. Guido van Rossum is acclaimed by the Python community as our "Benevolent Dictator for Life." The trick is is that he made a great contribution, his judgment is sound, and he's doesn't act the part. On the other hand, Richard Stallman is a critical and strident defender of the principles of free software, but he's also failed to get elected to the GNOME Board because his stridency has alienated many. Guido is the easy-going dictator attracting many users and Richard is dictating that people use words the way he wants and alienating folks in the process. The interesting characteristic that I've noticed about Tim and Linus is that they appreciate the importance of being a neutral forum and acting the part of the informedfulcrum:

Often there are debates about the means used towards common ends: are we better served by being pragmatic or principled? I think both are useful positions. For example, some individuals might choose to be uncompromising, to stand far out on the edge of the lever. In their singular position they don't weigh much, but their extremity does increase the torque by reminding us of the principle at stake. Others might devote themselves to the process and institutions of consensus. The fulcrum itself is unwieldy and difficult to move, but if one can shift it, that too can have a profound effect on the ultimate balance.

So, what's all of this mean? To be fair to Larry he's acting the part of a leader by expressing some hope for ways forward. And while I'd hate to be more pessimistic than he, perhaps this was a poor example — though dreams can come true. In any case, Larry's skeptic is myopic. Every human institution or culture has its benefits and weaknesses; in this reality every coin has another side. To fault open source culture as failing to support arbitrary autocrats is akin to complaining that too many cooks made a delicious potluck soup.

°2003.06.23.mo | Falling Flower

A beautiful graffiti flower loses its pedals near Harvard Square.

°2003.06.20.fr | Mindshare of the Ignorant

"Mindshare" is a technology buzz-word that specifies some portion of ownership in the "attention economy": simply, you have folks' attention and sympathy. However, while I was explaining the vagaries of technology politics, I stumbled upon the ironic turn of phrase that to be effective you still need the "mindshare of the ignorant." For example, the proposition that Iraq sponsored the 9/11 attacks and possessed weapons of mass destruction that were an imminent threat ...

°2003.06.19.th | Strangers Like Me?

Cambridge Public Library is modern: the return date for a book is printed out from a computer onto a little receipt. While the flimsy slip of paper might serve as a bookmark, it also deprives me of one of my small pleasures: wondering about the life of the book. I miss the stiff card that slid into its smart, little manila pocket. I'd wonder about the skill or hurriedness of the librarians that placed their stamp within the grid of square boxes. If I noted a similar carefulness or disregard, could I can discern the signature style of a particular librarian? Is this book popular? If so, how did those fifty other people who held this book for hours on end read it? Perhaps they turned the pages while laying in their bed, riding the subway, or picking their nose? (What is that smudge!?) Or, often, if I'm one of the exceptional few, were those other two people at all like me? What kind of weirdo would take this book out? And what was it like for a book to sit in one place, perused but passed over, for ten years?

°2003.06.19.th | Anarchism Reconsidered

When I noted that Kohan Ikin was distancing himself from the "anarchist" side of the Anarchist's Punk Ethic, I asked him what he meant and he was good enough to respond:

... I'm tired of people who protest for the sake of it, who seek to cause mayhem without any real commitment to a cause - basically the rent-a-crowds and the bandwagoners. I don't identify with those "anarchists". I believe that if you want to criticize something, you should offer a credible alternative. In many cases it isn't happening. In short, I wanted to dissociate myself from anarchists I did not identify with...

I thought, "oh, is that all?" Speaking of anarchism is a difficult undertaking. The further you get from the trunk of mainstream thought, the greater number of fractal divisions one can expect to find: anarchism is often thought of as being "out there." Consequently there's divisions of individual versus social anarchism; within social anarchism there's mutualism, collectivism, communism, and syndicalism; and then there's the branch I'm most sympathetic to: the pacifism of Thoreau, Tolstoy, and Gandhi.

I look at those young "anarchists" with some level of bemusement, though they can also be embarrassing, or quite in the wrong. But their behavior doesn't really do anything to discredit the principles expressed in the Anarchist's Punk Ethic. And any label is merely a best fit, and in this case I'm not willing to surrender a rich history of constructive skepticism of coercive authority because some crusty punk is misbehaving himself. I am willing to qualify the term, which is why two years ago I started using the term "civil anarchy" if I had to resort to a label. But, as I wrote four years ago, governance is unavoidable:

... I know governments are like venereal disease: the natural result of an intermingling of people. It only takes one bully to gang up on people, to prompt those people to defend themselves, turn into bullies, and prompt a competing group. Voila! Consequently, if someone is going to deprive you of life and liberty, hopefully it'll be a government constrained by a sense of justice...

So to me "civil anarchy" remains both a constructive personal philosophy of acting as I would like to be, having faith, building culture, promoting freedom, relying upon personal integrity, and being eccentric and non-conformist, as well as a deconstructive philosophy of always questioning and challenging authority.

°2003.06.19.th | RSS History

RSS is a way of "syndicating" one's web site content. For example, I have a little ticker program that scrolls at the top of my screen with the headlines (via RSS) from the sites that I follow. Unfortunately, the format has been the subject of much debate: much of it technical, but much of it personal. There's been accusations of theft, deceit, and malice. This is clearly a sad thing, I'm not a "open standards" sort of guy for nothing, but also interesting in an anthropologically grotesque sort of way. Regardless, given the various accusations I've found it useful to try to maintain a non-biased history of events from the public record. When I noted that Aaron touched again on the history, I thought I might as well share my own.

°2003.06.18.we | Nerd Versus Geek

While I tend to use both of the terms "nerd" and "geek", this weekend I found myself drawing a distinction between the two. I had objected to a rather quiet, shy, and very smart person being described as a geek, "Oh, no, no, he's a nerd, but not a geek." The difference? Enthusiasm. Coincidently, Wendy recently touched on this point by describing the essential exuberance and passion of the geek.

Speaking of which, my current favorite TV show is the Discovery's Channel Extreme Engineering. Pity the fool who has to interact with me within a day of seeing a new episode as I regale them with factoids about super-cities, canals, subways, and tunnels.

°2003.06.16.mo | Brooklyn and Back

This weekend Nora and I walked about Brooklyn trying to get a sense of neighborhoods and their respective prices. Friday and Saturday night we stayed at the New York Connection, which wasn't quite what I'd expected. First, I read "$25 Per Night Per person-Double room(2 person rooms)" as meaning $50 for the 2 nights, but it was twice that. And while the web site said free email access was available at the Library just a few blocks away, it didn't say the library was closed on weekends. Finally, while everyone was at pains to say how safe the neighborhood was, I was a bit surprised both nights. On the first evening I was taken aback by the barbed wire covering the gates of the hostel, but I can deal with that. The second night a police helicopter circled the neighborhood after some folks were shot nearby. Furthermore, my sleep was hindered by the cars with the "booming systems" on the street below (50 Cents seems to be very popular) and the occasional shout about "ya'lls nigger that did the shooting." I'd stay there again if I needed to, but I'd reconsider other options as well.

In terms of the actual apartments, we saw four properties with Mike from Select Real Estate in the Williamsburg area (Graham stop on the L-line). They seemed like pretty nice places, I wouldn't mind living in any of them, but I wasn't super keen either.

On a long walk further south we felt the first uncomfortable heat of the summer on streets that didn't feel friendly. It's only now that I've realized how important trees, flower boxes, and little parks can be. Down by Atlantic and Franklin (off the North East tip of the park) it was block after block of gunk speckled cement. And in New York, nearly any patch of green has to be severely fenced off to keep it from becoming yet another dumping ground of garbage and litter. (My annoyance at those who throw litter on the street is only going to cause me heart ache here.) I'm sure parts around Prospect Park must be nice, and I look forward to spending some afternoons there, but I wasn't impressed with this area. Earlier, a fellow apartment seeker told us she was leaving one of the neighborhoods off of the park because the Q-line service sucked and there was too much gang activity.

Hot and tired we retreated back to a friend's house in Carrol Gardens; his street is an expensive though beautiful retreat of super wide boulevards lined with great big trees and older folks working in their rose-filled front gardens. After a quick nap on the floor and a thunder storm that chased away the afternoon heat, we walked along Smith Street and Boerum Hill. If we could afford it, I think we'd be happy in these neighborhoods. We then crossed over to Manhattan to sup at a New York favorite, Caravan of Dreams, and returned to conversation with folks back at the hostel.

Sunday we stayed in East Williamsburg to look at an apartment near Cooper Park. There were some nice tree-lined avenues in this area. We then walked over to the trendy Bedford area, a cool loft nearby would certainly be nifty, but probably pricey. We continued walking up through McCarren park where we rested and watched the folks at a Polish/Slavic Festival before continuing on to Greenpoint, which reminded me of a very big Central Square. Then, over to Chinatown to return home via the Lucky Star Bus.

When we go back again, we'll focus our search on Carrol Gardens/Boerum Hill and the Williamsburg area near Bedford. Life gets easier when you simplify. And, I realize it's difficult to perfectly characterize any neighborhood because the lines are fluid: one street can be a mean concrete gray, but the next block can be of pretty brownstones with plenty of green. After I've lived there for a while, I'm sure I'll find these notes to be completely naive. Still, I must admit that when I finally returned to Cambridge I was relieved; I was returning to a less busy place, but a city none-the-less, of napping lawns, tall trees, and cool sprinklers that I will sorely miss.

°2003.06.11.we | No Photos

Monday I ventured out from Cambridge and crossed the river to meet the bloggers of the "other side". (It was finally a nice day, so crossing the river was enjoyable instead of wet and cold.) I met Adam, Elin, Heath, Jesper, Lorissa, Michael, Shannon, and Sooz. I haven't had a chance to familiarize myself with all of their blogs, but I am enjoying Lorissa's photography and was already following Adam's local "boston blogging".

The amusing bit was that we met at March° M°venpick, an expensive self-help grocery/cafeteria from Switzerland. Unlike the alleged Starbuck's policy of not permitting photographs within their premises, this place was explicit: signs on every wall! I, of course, tried to surreptitiously take a photograph of a sign, only to realize when I got home there's an employee within the frame looking right at me!

°2003.06.10.tu | Putt-Putting in Palestine

During the 1999 Presidential elections I remember reading an email entitled Texas Rankings Under Bush: Do you Want Some of This? It included Texas' ranking on poverty, education, health, and the environment: Texas was at the bottom of the heap. And while I appreciate that it's fairly easy to cook up such statistics and then only list those that are most flattering or insulting, I was quite content to let that born-again Texan stay in Texas. But it was not meant to be, and the lone star spirit continues to spread.

Among the "Zionist Evangelicals" that support Jewish Settlements in the Occupied Territories, Homer Owen is doing his part. He's opened a new branch of his Waco Texas establishment in Samari. Jewish "settlers" can now putt-putt in Palestine. While God allegedly gave the Jews this land, I suppose he wasn't too strict about the zoning. Oh, but that wouldn't be a problem: in the past God has helped Owen with complaints about a 800 pound golf ball atop a twenty foot tower.

And what of the Palestinians who once lived in the Occupied Territories? The Evangelicals aren't too concerned; most advocate their further wholesale removal. But the Jews shouldn't get too comfortable, because aside from those that convert while "puttering around with Jesus", the rest are doomed. Or in the colorful words of Hal Linsey, "the rest of Jewry would perish in the mother of all holocausts" and "the 200 mile valley from the Sea of Galilee to Eilat will flow with irradiated blood several feet deep."

And we "tut-tut" this "put-put" at our own peril: Armageddon has been a motif of Republican administrations since Reagan. In 1980, during his campaign, he stated, "We may be the generation that sees Armageddon." A year later, his Interior of the Secretary testified before Congress that we need not concern ourselves with preserving the environment as, "I do not know how many future generations we can count on before the Lord returns."

Of course, when it comes to the question of commerce versus the environment, or these "wealth creating" (i.e., deficit increasing) tax-cuts, the Republicans forget about the imminent Armageddon. After all, didn't someone say something about it being easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven?

°2003.06.08.su | Asian Women and Their Cell Phones

Yesterday, from my vantage point at a cafe window, I noted three, college age, Asian women sitting at a table outside. For the better part of the hour one was on her cell phone for most of the time, and the other two occasionally attended to their own phones, or passed one between themselves. I "tsk'd tsk'd" to my neighbor, but perhaps the social etiquette of cell phones are changing to match what I saw in Asia five years ago. Are the young just more enamored of their toys, and they will grow out of this behavior, or has the norm changed? Has taking a photo, sharing your SMS messages, or passing around the phone become an acceptable way of interacting in America? I've also noticed that a surprising percentage of people now talk on a phone when alone. Sometimes I'll note that 50% of the people walking alone on Mass Ave are on the phone. (I wonder if talking on the phone while walking alone imparts a sense of safety?)

So my present pet theory is that public cell phone usage in America is increasing dramatically, with younger Asian women leading the charge. Of course, I play with such pet theories in order to exercise my skeptic rigor. My theory was obviously seeded by my trips to Hong Kong and Tokyo. However, I'm always on the look out for confirmation and hindsight bias, and as mentioned in this Skeptical Enquirer article, there's so many more sources of psycho-social bias:

illusory correlation, finding a relationship that does not exist
fallacy of personal validation, subjective validation, or the Forer or Barnum effect, accepting a vague or general personality description as uniquely applicable to one's self
belief perseverance, maintaining a belief even after being presented with compelling evidence that is is wrong
false uniqueness effect, believing one's own positive attributes to be unique in relation to those of others
false consensus effect, believing one's views to be of the dominant majority
pluralistic ignorance, believing that one's private attitudes are different from those of others, even though one's public behavior is the same
demand characteristics, attempting to satisfy or gain approval from an authority figure, such as a doctor, experiment administrator, or hypnotist
foot in the door effect, complying with a significant request when followed by a minor request
self reference effect, improved memory recall when the material is directly related to one's self

Absent a methodical study, it's all anecdote, but I do love puzzling anecdotes.

°2003.06.05.th | Some Stories to Tell

A story of a "crazy old man" by Mark Pilgrim is causing much comment. I agree, I read the end as being rather mean spirited. This caused Don Park to ask about respect for elders, which then prompts two of my own long standing thoughts.

I try to be respectful of and compassionate towards people in general. (Kudos to those who are willing to give up their seat!) But, in what I'm told is a modern American attitude, I generally resist the idea of treating someone differently because of age or stature. For example, an old racist jerk was a young racist jerk at some point. Why let it pass? I'm not looking for offense; I know that cultural norms do change and consider the history, context, and intent of a person's actions. But to treat him differently is in some way patronizing: it presumes that he's not sentient enough to be responsible for his own actions.

Ironically enough, I suspect one of the reasons I like foreign movies is that they can still play to the tension of obliging one's parents and respecting one's elders, such as in the Wedding Banquet. While my American sensibilities are otherwise offended by meddling parents, when an older family member finally gets "it" and isn't quite as stodgy as expected, I cheer! However, I don't expect that all old people are interesting or cool either: it's just that interesting people, like jerks, get old too. One of the things that does scare me about getting old is a sense of waiting to die: there's no significant hobbies or activities beyond getting through one day, and its related health problems, to the next. Repeat, until you die. So while I sometimes wonder where my own modern individualistic (selfish?) ethos will leave me to pass my days (e.g., children, community, etc.), I hope I'll still be writing, photographing, or learning something new, just as some, older, version of me and my peers must be doing now? (Hansel Mieth was just as scrappy in her age as in her youth.)

Supposedly, the elderly are making great use of the Internet to reach out and stay connected; I'm waiting for a constellation of golden stars to arrive in our digital sky with some good stories to tell.

°2003.06.04.we | Mid-life, or Second Box?

During a friend's birthday last month I noted that we were getting old: forget mid-life crises, there's only 35 candles in a box and in a few of years we'll need a second!

°2003.06.02.mo | Spam Doing Me a Favor?

Some criminal shit or virus is sending out reams of spam with a forged sender address. These spams, when received, appear to be coming from an address that I maintain at work. This means that every mail daemon, virus detector, and spam-bouncer that returns the email, with a kind message that it won't accept it, is mistakenly returning the email back to me. Given the huge, shotgun-style distribution lists that spammers use, that means hundreds of messages (with their bulky attachments) arriving in my account.

If I'm forced to find humor in this in order to assuage my anger, this is sort of funny:

Thank you for contacting Columbia House. We have received your request and we are taking immediate steps to remove your email address from our Music Club Sweepstakes email list.

One of the addresses the spammer forged an email to was another "direct marketer's" auto-remove address! So no more spam from Columbia House for me! Now, what to do with all these other emails?

°2003.06.01.su | Gamelan Galaktika

Last night MIT's Gamelan Galaktika commemorated their 10th year of bringing "Bali to Boston." I'm looking forward to their next performance a week from now: a traditional Balinese wayang (shadow puppet play). I've rarely missed a performance since I've discovered them, and while I hope I'll be able to find performances in New York, it still won't be the same.

° 2003.06.01.su | Changes (Redux)

Some of my recent "big picture" questions now have answers. I've accepted a fellowship at NYU's Medial Ecology PhD program; it looks to be a great fit. Of course, no leaf in life is ever turned over without revealing its own consequent questions.

Where to live? I'm considering Brooklyn, with the additional benefit of having a roommate perfectly suited to me: Nora! Candidate neighborhoods include Southside, Greenpoint, and (East) Williamsburg.

What will I be doing? I hope to study the relationships between the Web as media (including blogs), collaboration, and the open source and standards communities. The W3C has been a wonderful home, and while I hope that my new environment will actually surprise me — I do want something new — I also hope that it will be equally supportive. I've always felt that 90% of my job satisfaction is the content of the work and, most importantly, the quality and character of the people I work with. Here's hoping that my colleagues will be bright, enthusiastic, and decent people! (And that the arbitrary capriciousness and sadism of the common graduate school ethos will be minimal.)

How will I approach my studies? One of the things I'm looking forward to is using all of these knowledge management and blogging tools in the pursuit of my work. I hope to approach graduate school a bit differently than I did last time with much more openness and collaboration. I plan to keep goatee.net for personal expression, but use pyblosxom to manage my studies and research at my research blog. I presently have a "W3C Team Only" planning page with my todo-outline and over 2000 entries of things done, people met, and trips made over the past four years. (With a custom query mechanism and RSS feed!) I plan to have a private planning page at NYU as well, but perhaps it will merge with my research blog.

What to do with my sites? For the past nine years, I've hosted my content from MIT; I've already transitioned a couple of the other domains to cornerhost, and I've staged this one for the move. If you've noticed things broken on this site, that's why.

There's a lot of good vegetarian restaurants in New York, lots of art and culture. Many interesting people live there, so I hope to renew old friendships and discover new ones. But I will definitely miss Cambridge. While I look forward to New York, I've lived there before and don't feel a particularly strong draw. I'll have to find the equivalents for bikes rides in Blue Hills; skinny dipping in Jamaica Pond; throwing stones in the Charles and balancing on the rails of the Mass Ave tracks; pleasant naps in the Harvard Arboretum, Mt. Auburn and the Forest Hills cemeteries; and knowing the local history and weirdos of the street. When I return, I want to go for a swim in the Charles river.

[May Archive]